UPDATE: Dropping Boxes Filled With Soldiers: a Bad Technical Idea but a Great Strategic One, 1950

I happened on this image from the front cover of Popular Science for November 1950 and recognized the idea instantly. I posted on an earlier version of this idea from 1928 and placed it firmly in the BAD IDEAS Department of this blog. The update from 1950 is a little improved, but, well, not by that much. At least this canister leaves the clutches of the plane safely, though from the look of things it seems as though it might not want to land very nicely.